LITTER on the Trails

08:00 AM - February 15, 2021

Monday, Feb 15th, Club #1

Grooming in the last 16 hours: #1 Groomer with Mickey, Rogers Lake to high way 430 on Trail 23, turn on 23 to Nine Mile Shelter, then 22 up to the 22-301 intersection back to 507 to Red Pine Shelter and back to Rogers Lake on 23. The #2 Groomer with Bryan and Jacob splitting this run; Atlantic Host to Nepisiguit then on to Highway 430 turned and back on 23 and 19 to the shop in East Bathurst. Yesterday afternoon, Ron did the 500 and the 501.

Just a word on trail conditions as a sledder called me yesterday about another issue (LITTER) and I asked him how the trails were. He said great from the Nepisiguit Lodge up to Nine Mile, which usually is beat up first, but it was all the other trails that got hammered, but he said it was caused mainly by people that don’t care about the next guy behind him. Powerful sleds with the big paddles tearing up the trails. There is no cure for this even if you had a groomer every 30 Km. The only cure is to stop gunning and running. If you have 2 & 3 inch paddle tracks the question is “What are you doing on a groomed trail?” I’m sorry but that is the problem.

He was also completely disgusted at the amount of litter, especially at Red Pine Shelter. We have blue bins for empties, but there was barely any cans in them. They were literally strewn all over the place. He said it wasn’t much different all along the trail system where people stopped and beveraged up then dropped their cans where they stopped. It is hard to understand why, if you are able to carry it in, then why can’t you carry it out. The above comments would be a guess that would rule out tourist sledders coming in this year, with borders closed to all non essential workers. New Brunswick sledders should be respecting the great tourism business they have built up over the years. The list to blame is quite short this year.